THE EARLIEST FOOTPRINTS OF SPRING. 



additional fertility required can be obtained from fertil- 

 izers. To the market gardener who had, for the past fif- 

 teen or twenty years, been applying stable manure at the 

 rate of fifteen cords per acre, he would say to him, stop, 

 and instead of stable manure use commercial fertilizer 

 and nothing else for five years at least. That would be 

 true economy, for the application of two thousand pounds 

 of fertilizer, which is about the right ratio for an acre of 

 land, would not cost nearly so much as fifteen cords of 

 manure. 



The question of the cost of manure eight miles from 

 Boston was discussed by many speakers, and the price 

 agreed upon by most of them was seven dollars per cord. 



Mr. D^rby, of Revere, struck the key-note to the situa- 

 tion on his remarks : He said, circumstances alters cases, 

 different soils require different treatment With him, upon 

 his heavy clayey soil, fall manuring not onlv improved 

 the texture of the soil but permitted it to drv out earlier 

 in the spring, 



Mr. Frost, of Belmont, related an interesting experi- 

 ment with fertilizer on celery. Celery, where fertilizer 

 was used, was far ahead of stable manure, as he experi- 

 mented both ways. Mr. Frost's experience was doubly 

 interesting, from the fact that he was formerly a skeptic 



on the use of commercial fertilizers on a market garden. 

 He formerly said that there was nothing equal to stable 

 manure. He further remarked that the market gardens 

 of Arlington and Belmont were now manure sick, so much 

 so that many of our valuable crops could not be grown. 

 It was out of the question to grow sweet melons, cauli- 

 flowers, tomatoes, bunch turnips ; and even celery, which 

 was always supposed to do well on old, rich soils, now 

 blighted badly there. 



Mr. Stone, of Waterton, spoke of his success in using 

 fertilizers for ten consecutive years, and the soil was 

 steadily improving. 



Mr. King, of Peabody, used fertilizers on hoed crops 

 tor six years, and the last year gave the best crop. The 

 piece is now laid down to grass, and it gives him his best 

 mowing. 



During Mr. Bowker's remarks he stated that he be 

 lieved that if Boston market gardeners would forego the 

 use of stable manure one season, the stablemen would 

 thereafter pay them for hauling it ; and that it was within 

 the province of this association to combine and accom- 

 plish this, placing their reliance for plant food during that 

 season upon concentrated chemicals. 



E, P. KiRBY. 



THE EARLIESTFOOT PRINTS OF SPRING. 



F, LIKE MYSELF, the readers of 

 The Americ.\n Garden would 

 fain have hardy flowers all the 

 year round, let nie advise you to 

 plant your shrubberies and gar* 

 dens with the very earliest bloom- 

 ers as well as with those that 

 grace the later season. If you are so fortunate, 

 from a horticultural point of view, as to live south 

 of Washington, do not fear to indulge yourself with 

 some shrubs of ChimonantJiiis fragrans or winter 

 flower, which is the very earliest, or shall I say, 

 latest blooming plant with which I am acquainted. 

 It flourishes in the south of England, where it is 

 much prized ; but it came originally from Japan, 

 and expands its reddish-purple and yellow blooms, 

 more than an inch in diameter, and exquisitely 

 scented tliroughout the winter months. Though 

 not quite hardy at the north, this beautiful and cu- 

 rious shrub can be safely wintered in a pit, whence, 

 with a supply of English violets, pansies and hya- 

 cinths, an abundance of bloom may be obtained for 

 winter decoration. In Washington it flourishes in 

 the open air, and it can be procured from the Kis- 

 sena nurseries at Flushing, Long Island, and from 

 John Saul, of Washington, D. C. 



The black thorn, Crcvtcgiis tovwntosa, can be found in 

 bloom late in February in mild winters. It is a beautiful 



sight, with its handsome snowy blossoms, in high relief 

 against the sombre coloring of its twigs. 



All the forsythias are very early bloomers and strik- 

 ingly beautiful. Such a glow of cheerful yellow do they 

 present that they are almost dazzling on a bright morning 

 in early spring, with the sun smiling at his reflection in a 

 myriad drops of freshly-melted snow hanging from their 

 pretty bells. If the roots are snugly tucked away under a 

 green coverlid of periwinkle, Vinca minor, you will find a 

 few early blossoms of this blue-eyed nursling of rough 

 March braving the latest frosts of spring. 



Hazel catkins are interesting at this early season, and 

 so are the soft fluffy pink and grey catkins of the aspen. 

 From the latter the bees obtain their earliest taste of new 

 bee-bread, as well as from the pussy willow. The shad- 

 bush or service-berry blooms m March, and all the 

 cydonias or Japan quinces follow in its make. It is a 

 beautiful shrub or small tree under cultivation, and its 

 improved variety, spicata, with its masses of delicate 

 fringe-like white blooms covering the tree, is a fine orna- 

 ment to the vernal shrubbery. In my garden the blos- 

 soming plum and its purple-leaved variety, Pritiuis Pis- 

 sari/i, adorn themselves to greet the advent of the show- 

 ery month long before any other of their relatives, the 

 fruit trees, are clothed in their garments of flowers. 



Still earlier is the Daphne Mezerewu, in haste to be the 

 first to lend its fragrance to the frosty airs of March. This 

 shrub has small rose-colored blossoms in clusters of three 

 starting from the point, which was the axil of a leaf of 

 the preceding year. Not a young leaf has unfolded when 

 the first flowers of this beautiful but poisonous plant dis- 



